The 'do-gooders', those self-appointed guardians of everyone although no-one asked them to be, have struck again.
This time, the victim is one of the best Christmas songs ever written.
The song 'Fairy tale of New York' by The Pogues (Shane McGowan) and Kirsty McCall has been popular since its first release back in 1987.
Each year, along with every other Christmas hit, it is played to death by every radio station around the UK.
However, this year, it's not quite the same as previous years.
Someone at Radio 1, the national station for our 'youth' (16-24) has decided that the lyrics might be offensive to someoone and edited the song to remove the 'offending' words.
These words are 'Slut' and 'Faggot' in the following verse:
"You're a Bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last"
Now, interestingly, Radio 1 has been making a big deal this year that they are available in the USA via 'Sirius' sattelite network and, I'm sure everyone knows that 'Faggot' is a slang word for homosexual in America.
Are we now worried about offending someone who lives in a foreign country, who takes the time & effort to tune into a radio station 4000+ miles away from them and are likely to be offended by these words?
If they are - SWITCH OFF!
Maybe we should also never play the theme tune to the Flintstones - after all, don't they sing about having 'a gay old time'?
Why can't we be told the name of the actual person who first thought up this idea?
Then maybe we could organise some proper work for him/her - especially seeing as how we pay their wages via the licence fee!
No doubt whoever it was will be hiding behind some 'focus group' or other such nonsense as they don't really want to be questioned about it in public. They may be shown to be the complete arse that they obviously are!
However, on one of our other national stations, Radio 2, it is being played in full. Maybe the slightly older generation aren't quite as delicate as their 16-24 counterparts?
